Z68 allows you to use SSD as a cache for a magnetic one, which would be fine if there were decent, small, and cheap SSDs. Then you have the Virtu that is not polished in operation or compatibility, it is an attempt to use the integrated and dedicated one as needed. So far 2 aspects without importance, a push on a magnetic and an attempt at power saving in some graphics that suck less at rest and low load each day. Then of course, you have the important stuff, graphics outputs + OC.
Well, being that way, you could get a SilverStone Strider Essential that will move a graphics performance/price and an ASRock P67 Pro3 that will comply with a moderate/decent OC with which the 212 will not fall short. You leave the money on SSDs which is what is most noticeable in overall performance. A good board will be more durable but the increase in extra OC is going to be laughable and the disipation will be short with a good OC in summer, even in winter if you are a big eater.
I don't see SLI as especially interesting mainly because I suppose that by the time I have the "need" to put in a second graphics card it is possible that even economically and "energetically" it will be better to get a new more powerful graphics card and sell the old one. It is also true that the last time I looked into SLI it still gave some performance problems that I suppose have improved considerably, it's just that I have been disconnected from hardware news for a long time, as can be seen by the E2160 ;D
A lot of time has passed since then, I had a 1650Pro DDR3 that performed similar to your graphics card and I mounted it on an Athlon 64 with a single core that back then cost me 100 euros along with the board and disipation xD Then I changed to the "same micro" that you have (E2180) with a 4850, 150€ micro+board+disipation and less than 100 GPU. Clearly you have surpassed me in bragging :ugly:
Nowadays almost all the demanding games support multiGPU and there are interesting configurations, with their pros and cons. The Gigabyte P67X-UD3 is not a bad board, the truth is that price/performance (SLI/Cross) is cool but 2 graphics cards will need more power supply and more cooling, if we add possible dizziness with drivers and some lack of utilization I think that for what you want there are enough cons to dismiss it.
As for the Ivy, they are not going to be a revolution but between the reduction in consumption, a 10% of performance (playing it will be less) and the OC, it is worth considering. If you are in a hurry, that's fine, what you will really notice when playing is having a good graphics card.
